My Take on the New X-com Game.
First, I am a diehard junkie of the originals (I have em all still, and I still play them).

I'll sort it out in the what I enjoy and don't enjoy about this game. One of my biggest fears getting into it was that they would do a Terror from the deep on me (where the board is Giagantic and the last alien hides itself in a corner and takes 2 hours to find).
Nor did I want the board to be ultra small either.

I honestly think so far, with the new tech in making games we have this game covers everything I wanted in the first and more, with some exceptions.

The Dislikes:

- Only One Base (I always loved how I could make special dedicated bases in the original for specific tasks and then expand them later)
- Have to take Alien Alive to gain its Gear (I miss being able to sell heavy plasma weapons, thus allowing me to operate on a net loss from the council and yet expand myself finanically)
- Limit of 6 Soliders (Once upgraded) for a Mission. (Nothing was more giggle worthy than an Avenger with 26 *IIRC* soliders, taking on a terror mission. 4 Turns was my record with that.)
- Geoscape interface (That is just a personal thing, I enjoyed the way I viewed the world in the original)
- Lack of Direct control of my Craft and shooting down UFO interface. (They lost something doing this from the old one, where I could use 4-6 Craft with Avalanche Missles to drop bigger UFO's)

The Likes:

- Class system, honestly this was lacking in the first where everyone was basically different but the same. Variety is the spice of life, and this makes me have the ability to tweak my crew.
- Mission Variety, being able to do all the set missions and side missions is nice.
- Country Panic. I hated how in the original that one stupid Infiltration craft landing would RUIN the country and your income. The way they do it now, is although harder too in a sense, more managable than prior attempts.
- Gone Are the Time Units! , which although time units made the original game Fundementally awesome, now that we have new mechanics like cover, and setting our overwatch they were no longer needed. I like the new system.
- Weapon and Ammo Management , the old way you had too many slots, which bogged your character down, which in the end was redundent and pointless. The new way with reloading and pistols etc works much much better.

I could probably go on but I figured I would make my little list of what I like. Its not often if at all that a remake or re-do of a classic becomes all I wanted and more, but I really feel that finally a game company actually did play the old and realized what the core of the game was about. This game deserves all the awards it is getting and more. Hands off best game of the year for me.

-ST

__________________

"We know not why he calls for us, only that when he does we must answer" - DMP 2009

"Dear Iceberg, I am sorry to hear about global warming. Karma is a bitch. Signed - Titanic"

I would rather believe and find god doesn't exist than to not believe and find that he does.

I've been waiting for this game but couldn't buy it on steam. I'm working in the great white north with basic internet... I finally got some time off, drove 300km to edmonton and bought the box copy. Got back to work, installed it and steam is forcing a 2 gb update!!1 @#$#@$!#!#[email protected]#$#%#$%&%&*(DFG#[email protected]!#@$^%#@QW%$TGRF#V$% !

In case any of you were watching for this one, it's on sale on Steam for $13.59 today.

I've been waiting for this one for some time. I loved the originals. They're honestly great old dos games. The only thing that got annoying to me was the micromanaging and slow pace at times. Sounds like they were both addressed in this remake. Very excited.

Just played through this for the first time and really enjoyed it. I agree with most of ST's comments on the strengths and flaws of the remake. It's certainly more playable than the originals. There just wasn't a great way to sit and play for 15-20 minutes on the original as you really had to micromanage carefully.

Was a little disappointed with the ending, but I'm not expecting Bioware story telling from a TBS game so I'll live. I also noticed that I never fought more than maybe 7 heavy floaters. I seemed to have went from floaters to Mutes to Robots and almost entirely skipped the Heavy Floaters.

The problem with an iron man impossible game, is that without time units and the one-action-per-turn rule, the random factor is too high to compensate for. Even with the most perfect play, with the best strategy possible, it's almost certain that you'll lose the game anwyay due to a few bad rolls.

With the old X-COM, you could play very conservatively and win most missions, even if you limited yourself to iron man. Sure, there were unavoidable losses, but with perfect strategy you'd eventually overcome.

The best game I had on impossible iron man (I was up to heavy plasma) ended with a single freak accident : my assault got close to a Chrysalis and missed both shots at point blank (98% chance). Lost the whole team and I never could recover with all rookies at that stage of the game.

I still think that time units would have made the game a lot better, and it would have had as much or more success if they had kept it that way.